Venus Williams of the U.S. clenches her fist after winning the second set against Poland's Urszula Radwanska in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) less

Venus Williams of the U.S. clenches her fist after winning the second set against Poland's Urszula Radwanska in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, ... more

Photo: Michel Euler

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Venus Williams of the U.S. screams after missing a return a return against Poland's Urszula Radwanska in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) less

Venus Williams of the U.S. screams after missing a return a return against Poland's Urszula Radwanska in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, ... more

Photo: Michel Euler

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Serena Williams of the U.S. prepares to serve against Georgia's Anna Tatishvili in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) less

Serena Williams of the U.S. prepares to serve against Georgia's Anna Tatishvili in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP ... more

Photo: Petr David Josek

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Poland's Urszula Radwanska clenches her fist when scoring a point against Venus Williams of the U.S. in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) less

Poland's Urszula Radwanska clenches her fist when scoring a point against Venus Williams of the U.S. in their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday, ... more

Photo: Michel Euler

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USA's Sam Querrey returns the ball to Slovakia's Lukas Lacko during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium Sunday, May 26, 2013 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) less

USA's Sam Querrey returns the ball to Slovakia's Lukas Lacko during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium Sunday, May 26, 2013 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe ... more

Photo: Christophe Ena

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Serena Williams, of the USA, serves the ball to Georgia's Anna Tatishvili during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium Sunday, May 26, 2013 in Paris. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) less

Serena Williams, of the USA, serves the ball to Georgia's Anna Tatishvili during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium Sunday, May 26, 2013 in Paris. (AP ... more

Photo: Petr David Josek

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Serena Williams, of the USA, returns the ball to Georgia's Anna Tatishvili during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium Sunday, May 26, 2013 in Paris. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) less

Serena Williams, of the USA, returns the ball to Georgia's Anna Tatishvili during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium Sunday, May 26, 2013 in Paris. (AP ... more

Photo: Petr David Josek

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Venus Williams done in opener

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Paris

Grimacing after some poor shots, leaning over with hands on knees while catching her breath after others, Venus Williams left the French Open after the first round for the first time since 2001.

Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion seeded 30th, struggled with her serve — all sorts of strokes, actually— and lost 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 6-4 Sunday to 40th-ranked Urszula Radwanska of Poland, who never has been past the second round of a major tournament.

The quick exit for Williams, who was broken 11 of the 17 times she served, came a year after she lost in the second round at Roland Garros to Radwanska's older sister, Agnieszka, the 2012 Wimbledon runner-up.

"Yeah, of course, I was talking with Aga about Venus," Urszula said.

Williams, naturally, also knows a thing or two about having a more successful tennis-playing sibling, and her short stay in Paris comes a year after younger sister Serena, who owns 15 Grand Slam titles, was upset in the first round at Roland Garros. Serena made a fluent return to the clay-court major tournament in the early afternoon Sunday, overwhelming 74th-ranked Anna Tatishvili 6-0, 6-1

With shadows creeping across the court in the early evening, Venus had a much tougher time against Urszula, who is far-less-accomplished than Agnieszka, the French Open's fourth seed.

Truth be told, this result really was not nearly as stunning as Serena's French Open loss to 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano in 2012. That remains Serena's only first-round departure in 51 appearances at Grand Slams.

Venus was one of two seeded players — men or women — to lose on Day 1: Monica Puig of Puerto Rico surprised No. 11 Nadia Petrova of Russia 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Otherwise, results went to form, with 17-time major champion Roger Federer picking up a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory over a guy making his Grand Slam debut, Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, while No. 4 David Ferrer, No. 14 Milos Raonic of Canada and No. 18 Sam Querrey of the United Sates also were among the winners.

Venus, 32 and still learning to live with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease, now has two first-round losses in the past four Grand Slam tournaments. Her defeat at Wimbledon last June was the first time she'd left a major championship that early since she lost in the first round of the Australian Open 6½ years earlier.